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Babylon 5 #7
The Shadow Within
Anna Sheridan has two passions--her husband, John, and the mystery surrounding some intriguing artifacts found during a mission to a distant planet called Z'Ha'dum. Now she gets orders to become the science officer on the follow-up mission scheduled for the spaceship Icarus. Happy, young, beloved, and brilliant, never has a woman had so much to live for. Or so much to lose. While John, recently promoted to the rank of captain, struggles with his new command on the Agamemnon, Anna begins to assemble her science crew...and makes a first mistake. She signs on Dr. Morden, a highly credentialed translator whose heart hides a weakness that can cost Anna her life or her soul. Her second mistake is to underestimate the danger of Z'Ha'dum. What is awaiting the Icarus near the rim of known destiny...and a dark future that can crush her husband's dreams and a terror that can come back to haunt us all.
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
5 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Cavelos
17 books72 followersJeanne Cavelos is a writer, editor, scientist, and teacher. She began her professional life as an astrophysicist and mathematician, working in the Astronaut Training Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Her love of science fiction led her to earn her MFA in creative writing. She moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edge imprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction.
In 1994, she left New York to pursue her own writing career. She is currently writing a near-future science thriller about genetic manipulation, titled Fatal Spiral. Her last novel to hit the stores was Invoking Darkness , the third volume in the best-selling trilogy The Passing of the Techno-Mages , set in the Babylon 5 universe (Del Rey). The Sci-Fi Channel called the trilogy "A revelation for Babylon 5 fans. . . . Not 'television episodic' in look and feel. They are truly novels in their own right." Her nonfiction book The Science of Star Wars (St. Martin's) was chosen by the New York Public Library for its recommended reading list, and CNN said, "Cavelos manages to make some of the most mind-boggling notions of contemporary science understandable, interesting and even entertaining." The highly praised The Science of The X-Files , (Berkley) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Crisp, conversational, and intelligent."
Her first published book, the Babylon 5 novel The Shadow Within (Dell), went out of print a few years ago and was reissued by Del Rey due to popular demand. Dreamwatch magazine called it "one of the best TV tie-in novels ever written."
Recent works include the novella "Negative Space" (which was given honorable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction), in the anthology Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing), and several essays: "Living with Terror: Jack Bauer as a Coping Mechanism in Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disordered America" in Jack Bauer for President , "Stop Her, She's Got a Gun!" in Star Wars on Trial , "Down the Wormhole: Cognitive Dislocation, Escalation, Pyrrhic Victory and Farscape" in Farscape Forever , and "Innovation in Horror," which appears in both On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association and The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Books). She has published short fiction, essays, and reviews in many magazines.
The Many Faces of Van Helsing , an anthology she edited, was published by Berkley in 2004 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. The editors at Barnes and Noble called it "brilliant. . . . Arguably the strongest collection of supernatural stories to be released in years." Berkley is releasing a mass market paperback edition in October 2008.
Jeanne also runs Jeanne Cavelos Editorial Services, a full-service freelance company that provides editing, ghostwriting, consulting, and critiquing services to publishers, book packagers, agents, and authors. Among its clients are major publishers and best-selling and award-winning writers.
Since she loves working with developing writers, she created and serves as director of Odyssey , a six-week summer workshop for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held annually at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. Odyssey allows developing writers to focus on their craft and receive detailed, in-depth feedback on their work. Guest lecturers include some of the top authors, editors, and agents in the field.
Her love of science fiction led her to earn her MFA in creative writing. She moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edge imprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction.
In 1994, she left New York to pursue her own writing career. She is currently writing a near-future science thriller about genetic manipulation, titled Fatal Spiral. Her last novel to hit the stores was Invoking Darkness , the third volume in the best-selling trilogy The Passing of the Techno-Mages , set in the Babylon 5 universe (Del Rey). The Sci-Fi Channel called the trilogy "A revelation for Babylon 5 fans. . . . Not 'television episodic' in look and feel. They are truly novels in their own right." Her nonfiction book The Science of Star Wars (St. Martin's) was chosen by the New York Public Library for its recommended reading list, and CNN said, "Cavelos manages to make some of the most mind-boggling notions of contemporary science understandable, interesting and even entertaining." The highly praised The Science of The X-Files , (Berkley) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Crisp, conversational, and intelligent."
Her first published book, the Babylon 5 novel The Shadow Within (Dell), went out of print a few years ago and was reissued by Del Rey due to popular demand. Dreamwatch magazine called it "one of the best TV tie-in novels ever written."
Recent works include the novella "Negative Space" (which was given honorable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction), in the anthology Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing), and several essays: "Living with Terror: Jack Bauer as a Coping Mechanism in Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disordered America" in Jack Bauer for President , "Stop Her, She's Got a Gun!" in Star Wars on Trial , "Down the Wormhole: Cognitive Dislocation, Escalation, Pyrrhic Victory and Farscape" in Farscape Forever , and "Innovation in Horror," which appears in both On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association and The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Books). She has published short fiction, essays, and reviews in many magazines.
The Many Faces of Van Helsing , an anthology she edited, was published by Berkley in 2004 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. The editors at Barnes and Noble called it "brilliant. . . . Arguably the strongest collection of supernatural stories to be released in years." Berkley is releasing a mass market paperback edition in October 2008.
Jeanne also runs Jeanne Cavelos Editorial Services, a full-service freelance company that provides editing, ghostwriting, consulting, and critiquing services to publishers, book packagers, agents, and authors. Among its clients are major publishers and best-selling and award-winning writers.
Since she loves working with developing writers, she created and serves as director of Odyssey , a six-week summer workshop for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held annually at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. Odyssey allows developing writers to focus on their craft and receive detailed, in-depth feedback on their work. Guest lecturers include some of the top authors, editors, and agents in the field.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 25, 2024
"Had he saved all of these useless people, only to let her die?"
Wow 👌 This was sensational. I've never seen the author's name before but you can bet I'm about to go find out what else they've written.
This story is a bit of a safe bet. It's about what happened to Anna and Morden on Zahadum. And it's about John Sheridan taking command of the Agamemnon. And it's about the very early days of the fifth Babylon station, before we are introduced to it on screen. That means there are only a few familiar characters to represent and even those are pre the way we meet them later on, so differences will fly. And not only that - this is a story we all really want!
On the other hand, this is a pretty crucial part of the lore to fill in so you had better not fk it up. Thankfully, I think that Cavelos has handled it wonderfully.
Not much else to tell you about it. It's thorough. It's a little emotional. It's extremely revealing and fascinating. And I think B5 fans are going to love it.
Wow 👌 This was sensational. I've never seen the author's name before but you can bet I'm about to go find out what else they've written.
This story is a bit of a safe bet. It's about what happened to Anna and Morden on Zahadum. And it's about John Sheridan taking command of the Agamemnon. And it's about the very early days of the fifth Babylon station, before we are introduced to it on screen. That means there are only a few familiar characters to represent and even those are pre the way we meet them later on, so differences will fly. And not only that - this is a story we all really want!
On the other hand, this is a pretty crucial part of the lore to fill in so you had better not fk it up. Thankfully, I think that Cavelos has handled it wonderfully.
Not much else to tell you about it. It's thorough. It's a little emotional. It's extremely revealing and fascinating. And I think B5 fans are going to love it.
February 1, 2014
In 1993 the pilot episode for a new TV series idea premiered. The series as such began in 1994. Despite jokes from the mouth of Sheldon of Big Bang Theory this was one of the best (if not the best) science fiction series ever on TV. It was ground breaking, original filled with strong characters, based on an interesting premise, conceived and written as a "novel for television".
It still airs in Europe, the UK and other parts of the world. Why is it so scarce in the US? Because it's caught in a legal wrangle at Warner Brothers who apparently has a strangle hold on the rights and won't allow syndication or media use of the title. It's a classic case of cutting off the nose to spite the face as there is still a strong fan base and if the series were to appear in syndication an entirely new generation of fans would come into being. I own the DVDs of the series, so far as I know the only way to view this amazing series in the US.
So, to the novel. First many of you may wonder (if you're keeping track) why I read the 7th in the series first. It's because of the "first series" of novels based on Bab 5 only #7 and #9 are considered canon. I have the others and plan to read them but I'll read these first.
I recently sent for used copies of these and the other Bab 5 novels.
This story covers something fans of the series will know about in general, the apparent last contact between Captain John Sheridan and his wife Anna. It also recounts .
While the book isn't some literary classic it's well written and readable. You get an interesting story and for the Bab 5 fans the people you meet here harken fairly true to the ones we already know from the series.
This is a good novel on and in it's own right though I think reading it may be a sort of "gateway drug" to the Bab 5 universe. So...recommended and welcome. If you aren't familiar with said universe you have something great to look forward to.
It still airs in Europe, the UK and other parts of the world. Why is it so scarce in the US? Because it's caught in a legal wrangle at Warner Brothers who apparently has a strangle hold on the rights and won't allow syndication or media use of the title. It's a classic case of cutting off the nose to spite the face as there is still a strong fan base and if the series were to appear in syndication an entirely new generation of fans would come into being. I own the DVDs of the series, so far as I know the only way to view this amazing series in the US.
So, to the novel. First many of you may wonder (if you're keeping track) why I read the 7th in the series first. It's because of the "first series" of novels based on Bab 5 only #7 and #9 are considered canon. I have the others and plan to read them but I'll read these first.
I recently sent for used copies of these and the other Bab 5 novels.
This story covers something fans of the series will know about in general, the apparent last contact between Captain John Sheridan and his wife Anna. It also recounts .
While the book isn't some literary classic it's well written and readable. You get an interesting story and for the Bab 5 fans the people you meet here harken fairly true to the ones we already know from the series.
This is a good novel on and in it's own right though I think reading it may be a sort of "gateway drug" to the Bab 5 universe. So...recommended and welcome. If you aren't familiar with said universe you have something great to look forward to.
August 10, 2012
Great stand alone book set in the Babylon 5 universe. The book is considered 100% cannon by Babylon 5 creator, J. Michael Straczynski, it tells the back stories of Anna Sheridan and Morden (how they ended up on Z'ha'dum, to be future collaborators with the Shadows), and of John Sheridan as commander of the Agamemnon on his mission to save Babylon 5 from an attempt by the Homeguard to blow it up. The novel is also spiced with scenes of Ambassador Delenn, Jeffrey Sinclair, Garibaldi, and the scenes of Kosh set inside a Vorlon ship are excellent and make fantastic counterpoints to later descriptions of the Shadows themselves.
Great book, great story telling. A must for any Babylon 5 fan!
The four star rating is its general rating, however within the Babylon 5 franchise, this book definitely deserves 5 stars.
Great book, great story telling. A must for any Babylon 5 fan!
The four star rating is its general rating, however within the Babylon 5 franchise, this book definitely deserves 5 stars.
March 16, 2014
Despite some slightly dodgy spots, this was a fairly engaging book. Unlike the others so far, this one takes place at the dawn of Babylon 5 and deals with Anna and John Sheridan. Specifically, his assumption of command of the Agamemnon, and Anna's journey to Alpha Omega 3. While some of the interpersonal stuff was a bit iffy, the author did a good job of keeping AO3 tense and spooky, and also handled Morden nicely.
I'm pleased with this novel.
I'm pleased with this novel.
September 30, 2014
Very good, even as a re-read.
December 17, 2017
November, 2256. Anna Sheridan, an archaeologist working for Interplanetary Expeditions, is investigating an ancient alien artefact recovered from a remote planet. When the artefact scrambles the brain of a telepath, Psi Corps becomes very interested in where the device came from and what it means. Improbably, Interplanetary Expeditions rapidly discovers a candidate for the machine's homeworld - "Alpha Omega III", on the rim of known space - and dispatches a ship, the Icarus, to investigate. Anna joins the crew and discovers a seething mess of corporate espionage, competing interests and hidden secrets hinting at how this planet was discovered so quickly. Anna feels the only person she can trust is an archaeo-linguist suffering a profound grief and trauma: Dr. Morden.
When J. Michael Straczynski started planning his Babylon 5 television series in the late 1980s, he had the idea of creating the first-ever genuinely multimedia franchise. His idea was for the tie-in novels and comic books to be just as important and canonical to the setting as any episode of the television series (Star Wars later tried to do something similar with its Expanded Universe, which ended in failure). In the event this proved challenging: the publishers did not want to spend a lot of money on quality writers and their production schedules for the books was ridiculous. John Vornholt had a month apiece to write his two books in the series and found that so tough he refused to write any more.
After the first six novels came out and, with the honourable exceptions of Vornholt's Voices and Jim Mortimore's Clark's Law, turned out to be terrible, there was a reset of the line. Straczynski assigned the next three book outlines and premises personally and tried to find better writers. The result gave us another awful novel - Betrayals by the normally-reliable S.M. Stirling - but it did finally provide two books which finally fulfilled the potential of the idea by giving us novels that told stories the TV series was unable to. These two books - The Shadow Within and To Dream in the City of Sorrows - are both considered fully canon for the TV show and are pretty decent SF novels in their own right.
The Shadow Within is the more self-contained of the two and can be read without any pre-knowledge of the Babylon 5 setting, especially since the titular station and the regular TV characters barely appear. Instead, the focus is on Anna Sheridan and the mission to Alpha Omega III. This storyline is well-played, although modern readers may draw parallels with the 2012 movie Prometheus. Fortunately, The Shadow Within is far better-written and more plausible in how it depicts the behaviour of the team of scientists and engineers. Jeanne Cavelos is an actual former NASA astrophysicist, which helps with the description and outfitting of a scientific mission.
The book also has a significant subplot, with Captain John Sheridan assuming command of the Omega-class destroyer Agamemnon. To his horror, the crew is lackadaisical and insubordinate, the result of the corruption of the previous captain. This subplot sees Sheridan having to uncover what happened with the previous captain that corrupted so many of the officers and trying to bring the crew up to Earthforce standards, just as the ship is dispatched on an urgent mission. This subplot is pretty decent but feels a little incongruous when contrasted to the Anna story, which is much more interesting.
This storyline also begins to cross-bleed into the horror genre, especially when the Icarus reaches the alien planet to find it is not as dead as was previously indicated. Strange things start happening, crewpeople start going missing, people start behaving weirdly and a growing feeling of doom envelops the story. But there's some big surprises here even for seasoned Babylon 5 fans. The ending in particular transforms Mr. Morden from an evil snake-oil salesman into a much more tragic figure, destroyed by circumstance and grief, which makes you re-examine the character from the TV series.
The Shadow Within (****) is a decent and solid - if rather short - SF novel which works well as a Babylon 5 tie-in and as an introduction to the entire franchise for newcomers. It also serves a prequel to Cavelos's later Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy, which picks up on some of the story threads left dangling from this novel and the TV series. The book is available in the UK and USA.
When J. Michael Straczynski started planning his Babylon 5 television series in the late 1980s, he had the idea of creating the first-ever genuinely multimedia franchise. His idea was for the tie-in novels and comic books to be just as important and canonical to the setting as any episode of the television series (Star Wars later tried to do something similar with its Expanded Universe, which ended in failure). In the event this proved challenging: the publishers did not want to spend a lot of money on quality writers and their production schedules for the books was ridiculous. John Vornholt had a month apiece to write his two books in the series and found that so tough he refused to write any more.
After the first six novels came out and, with the honourable exceptions of Vornholt's Voices and Jim Mortimore's Clark's Law, turned out to be terrible, there was a reset of the line. Straczynski assigned the next three book outlines and premises personally and tried to find better writers. The result gave us another awful novel - Betrayals by the normally-reliable S.M. Stirling - but it did finally provide two books which finally fulfilled the potential of the idea by giving us novels that told stories the TV series was unable to. These two books - The Shadow Within and To Dream in the City of Sorrows - are both considered fully canon for the TV show and are pretty decent SF novels in their own right.
The Shadow Within is the more self-contained of the two and can be read without any pre-knowledge of the Babylon 5 setting, especially since the titular station and the regular TV characters barely appear. Instead, the focus is on Anna Sheridan and the mission to Alpha Omega III. This storyline is well-played, although modern readers may draw parallels with the 2012 movie Prometheus. Fortunately, The Shadow Within is far better-written and more plausible in how it depicts the behaviour of the team of scientists and engineers. Jeanne Cavelos is an actual former NASA astrophysicist, which helps with the description and outfitting of a scientific mission.
The book also has a significant subplot, with Captain John Sheridan assuming command of the Omega-class destroyer Agamemnon. To his horror, the crew is lackadaisical and insubordinate, the result of the corruption of the previous captain. This subplot sees Sheridan having to uncover what happened with the previous captain that corrupted so many of the officers and trying to bring the crew up to Earthforce standards, just as the ship is dispatched on an urgent mission. This subplot is pretty decent but feels a little incongruous when contrasted to the Anna story, which is much more interesting.
This storyline also begins to cross-bleed into the horror genre, especially when the Icarus reaches the alien planet to find it is not as dead as was previously indicated. Strange things start happening, crewpeople start going missing, people start behaving weirdly and a growing feeling of doom envelops the story. But there's some big surprises here even for seasoned Babylon 5 fans. The ending in particular transforms Mr. Morden from an evil snake-oil salesman into a much more tragic figure, destroyed by circumstance and grief, which makes you re-examine the character from the TV series.
The Shadow Within (****) is a decent and solid - if rather short - SF novel which works well as a Babylon 5 tie-in and as an introduction to the entire franchise for newcomers. It also serves a prequel to Cavelos's later Passing of the Techno-Mages Trilogy, which picks up on some of the story threads left dangling from this novel and the TV series. The book is available in the UK and USA.
May 27, 2024
Prior to the ceremonial opening of the Babylon 5 station, the Vorlon ambassador Kosh has been waiting and watching for three years near a planet on the Rim known to humanity as Alpha Omega 3 but to other species as Z'Ha'dum. He sends a message to the Minbari ambassador asking her to request Jeffery Sinclair to intercede with earth authorities to immediately command the expedition to the planet to return home. But the expedition is a private one (allegedly) by IPX, and is (allegedly) for the purposes of archaeological exploration.
John Sheridan's wife, Anna, has been invited by her hero and mentor Dr Chang on a trip that promises to be the discovery of a lifetime. Anna had already found in a box of "miscellaneous" from another dig on another planet a small object she called "the mouse". It seemed mechanical but she wasn't sure and, on holding it, she felt some kind of activation and some unusual sense of union with it. Taking a risk, she engages a telepath to see if it can be fully activated by psychic powers. It goes very wrong and the telepath becomes mindless jelly, repeating over and over, "I am the machine." Only later does Anna find out that every telepath in a three-mile radius was similarly affected.
Normally it takes many months to fit out an expedition of this scale, but somehow in just a few weeks IPX has one ready to go to the Rim. Anna has been waiting for John to join her for a long-overdue reunion but he is caught up in striving to deal with the failed inspections of his new command ship, Agamemnon. Until his crew is battle-ready, he can't afford his scheduled R&R. Meantime, Anna gets to know the linguist Dr Morden who has tragically lost his wife and child in an accident at a jump gate and is terrorised and tormented by the thought that they may be trapped in hyperspace, in the traumatic moment of dying, for an eternity.
As the IPX expedition heads off on the Icarus for Alpha Omega 3, it becomes clear that Donne, the telepath aboard, is working with the captain to gain the secrets of the biomechanical technology Anna has accidentally discovered. Those secrets will change the power structure of all planetary alignments and, in the eyes of many in the earth hierarchy, give humanity the edge in the galaxy.
But, as Kosh could have told them, it's a trap. There is now only one choice: to serve the powers of Z'Ha'dum. There are only two options in that choice: free or enslaved. The price of freedom: to choose to fulfil your deepest desire.
John Sheridan's wife, Anna, has been invited by her hero and mentor Dr Chang on a trip that promises to be the discovery of a lifetime. Anna had already found in a box of "miscellaneous" from another dig on another planet a small object she called "the mouse". It seemed mechanical but she wasn't sure and, on holding it, she felt some kind of activation and some unusual sense of union with it. Taking a risk, she engages a telepath to see if it can be fully activated by psychic powers. It goes very wrong and the telepath becomes mindless jelly, repeating over and over, "I am the machine." Only later does Anna find out that every telepath in a three-mile radius was similarly affected.
Normally it takes many months to fit out an expedition of this scale, but somehow in just a few weeks IPX has one ready to go to the Rim. Anna has been waiting for John to join her for a long-overdue reunion but he is caught up in striving to deal with the failed inspections of his new command ship, Agamemnon. Until his crew is battle-ready, he can't afford his scheduled R&R. Meantime, Anna gets to know the linguist Dr Morden who has tragically lost his wife and child in an accident at a jump gate and is terrorised and tormented by the thought that they may be trapped in hyperspace, in the traumatic moment of dying, for an eternity.
As the IPX expedition heads off on the Icarus for Alpha Omega 3, it becomes clear that Donne, the telepath aboard, is working with the captain to gain the secrets of the biomechanical technology Anna has accidentally discovered. Those secrets will change the power structure of all planetary alignments and, in the eyes of many in the earth hierarchy, give humanity the edge in the galaxy.
But, as Kosh could have told them, it's a trap. There is now only one choice: to serve the powers of Z'Ha'dum. There are only two options in that choice: free or enslaved. The price of freedom: to choose to fulfil your deepest desire.
December 11, 2025
I'm such a huge B5 fan, so of course I'm going to read all the canonical books, even if this one is only "half canon". I really enjoyed getting the backstory for a pivotal part of the tv series!
Just before the events of Babylon 5, Anna Sheridan is invited to join an archeological expedition to deep space that will alter the course of history. As her husband, John, begins his command of the Earthforce battlecruiser, Agamemnon, she is whisked off to a planet known to humans as Alpha Omega 3, but to other more ancient races as the infamous Z'Ha'dum. Hoping to find an alien technology beyond her wildest dreams, she suddenly finds herself accompanied to the planet by none other than a member of Psi Corps and a mysterious man known only as Mr. Morden. Why are they here? And is the planet really as empty as it appears?
It was great to see the actual events of Anna Sheridan's doomed expedition play out in real time. It is so important to the Babylon 5 story as a whole. The Shadows are way more terrifying in written word than on-screen, mainly because you get to read how it feels to be around them in details that tv just can't show. I enjoyed getting Morden's backstory as well! It almost made me like him, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Getting bits of Kosh, Delenn, and Sinclair was fun too. The plot with John is not considered canon by the writer of B5, which is kind of a shame because it is a pretty good plot, but it isn't as vital as the one with Anna.
The writing style leaves something to be desired. The author reuses a bunch of phrases, including "put a fist to her mouth" which makes no sense in context. I think she means "hand" instead of "fist". Otherwise the visual is very weird. I noticed the use of "lines in the dessert" instead of "lines in the desert", and that was a pretty funny mistake. I also think she overdid John's character and Sinclair's didn't sit right for some reason.
Overall, it's definitely good for fans of B5, especially since it adds to the main plot. But it's not a standalone, and unless you've seen the show, I wouldn't recommend the book. It was definitely written with the understanding that the reader knows what's going on in this universe, so go watch the show first, then come read this one.
Just before the events of Babylon 5, Anna Sheridan is invited to join an archeological expedition to deep space that will alter the course of history. As her husband, John, begins his command of the Earthforce battlecruiser, Agamemnon, she is whisked off to a planet known to humans as Alpha Omega 3, but to other more ancient races as the infamous Z'Ha'dum. Hoping to find an alien technology beyond her wildest dreams, she suddenly finds herself accompanied to the planet by none other than a member of Psi Corps and a mysterious man known only as Mr. Morden. Why are they here? And is the planet really as empty as it appears?
It was great to see the actual events of Anna Sheridan's doomed expedition play out in real time. It is so important to the Babylon 5 story as a whole. The Shadows are way more terrifying in written word than on-screen, mainly because you get to read how it feels to be around them in details that tv just can't show. I enjoyed getting Morden's backstory as well! It almost made me like him, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Getting bits of Kosh, Delenn, and Sinclair was fun too. The plot with John is not considered canon by the writer of B5, which is kind of a shame because it is a pretty good plot, but it isn't as vital as the one with Anna.
The writing style leaves something to be desired. The author reuses a bunch of phrases, including "put a fist to her mouth" which makes no sense in context. I think she means "hand" instead of "fist". Otherwise the visual is very weird. I noticed the use of "lines in the dessert" instead of "lines in the desert", and that was a pretty funny mistake. I also think she overdid John's character and Sinclair's didn't sit right for some reason.
Overall, it's definitely good for fans of B5, especially since it adds to the main plot. But it's not a standalone, and unless you've seen the show, I wouldn't recommend the book. It was definitely written with the understanding that the reader knows what's going on in this universe, so go watch the show first, then come read this one.
August 8, 2025
To keep riding the wave of B5 material, to which there is a surprising amount of, I picked up The Shadow Within (TSW) in hopes to further expand my knowledge of the universe and/or characters. When I finished reading I couldn’t help but think, that’s it? While we certainly learn a little more about Anna Sheridan, none of it was information I would consider necessary or even interesting. We already knew she was a top archeologist who disappeared on a doomed trip to “Alpha Omega 3”, actually showing the mission provided no new information on the shadows, and John’s meager sections in the book probably could’ve been cut entirely.
This isn’t to say TSW was poorly written; Cavelos’s writing has decent pacing and a nice level of attention to detail. However, I never shook the feeling that she would be better served in the romance or cozy mystery genre, not space adventure. Also, she mentions getting feedback from professors in archelogy and geology in the acknowledgements, but I can’t think of a single moment when any expert knowledge in those fields was used. Instead, she should’ve gotten some consulting on military culture, particularly the Navy, because none of those scenes rang true to me.
Overall I’d say The Shadow Within is for completists only. I got the sense that B5’s publicist was pressuring JMS to come out with something, and he just okayed this book to get them off his back, without much in the way of quality control. Perhaps I’m being overly harsh with this review, but I can’t point to one thing that makes me want to revisit an episode because something in this book presented a new or different take on anything. And why was Delenn on the cover? All of her scenes and mentions could easily fit on a single page. If anything Morden, or perhaps John rather than Jeff, should've taken her place. Cheers
This isn’t to say TSW was poorly written; Cavelos’s writing has decent pacing and a nice level of attention to detail. However, I never shook the feeling that she would be better served in the romance or cozy mystery genre, not space adventure. Also, she mentions getting feedback from professors in archelogy and geology in the acknowledgements, but I can’t think of a single moment when any expert knowledge in those fields was used. Instead, she should’ve gotten some consulting on military culture, particularly the Navy, because none of those scenes rang true to me.
Overall I’d say The Shadow Within is for completists only. I got the sense that B5’s publicist was pressuring JMS to come out with something, and he just okayed this book to get them off his back, without much in the way of quality control. Perhaps I’m being overly harsh with this review, but I can’t point to one thing that makes me want to revisit an episode because something in this book presented a new or different take on anything. And why was Delenn on the cover? All of her scenes and mentions could easily fit on a single page. If anything Morden, or perhaps John rather than Jeff, should've taken her place. Cheers
October 18, 2023
Wikipedia states about this book in relation to The Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy by Jeanne - In addition, the standalone novel Babylon 5: The Shadow Within serves as a prologue to the trilogy.
I would just like to say, bollocks.
The Techno-Mages are not even mentioned in this book. I read this book first as I was mistakenly under the impression it had something to do with the Techno-mage trilogy which I'm planning to read next. It dosen't.
Having dispensed with the misinformation let’s talk about this book.
This book should be called, The Icarus Expedition, as that’s what it is. The Shadow Within is just being enigmatic. The 2 principle POV characters are Anna and John, and it’s really about Anna. John as used as the counter-point.
This book ties in seamlessly to the series from what I recall. I did I complete rewatch of the series a few months ago and see no glaring continuity errors within the book. It’s an excellent expansion on the Icarus mission to Z’ha’dum.
We get to see a different side to Mr Morden when he was just an Earth Force agent, and how he became a Shadow puppet. Initially I thought there was a scene where he was being interviewed by Anna and was conversing with Shadows over her shoulder, but I think that was meant to be more him reflecting on the death of his wife and daughter.
The other oddity is it’s book 7. I’ve always assumed the numbered books were additional stories sequenced within the TV series, but this all happens before the pilot episode. It’s all backstory. Great back story, but weird to be numbered 7.
All in all and excellent addition to the B5 canon I’d recommend to fans.
I would just like to say, bollocks.
The Techno-Mages are not even mentioned in this book. I read this book first as I was mistakenly under the impression it had something to do with the Techno-mage trilogy which I'm planning to read next. It dosen't.
Having dispensed with the misinformation let’s talk about this book.
This book should be called, The Icarus Expedition, as that’s what it is. The Shadow Within is just being enigmatic. The 2 principle POV characters are Anna and John, and it’s really about Anna. John as used as the counter-point.
This book ties in seamlessly to the series from what I recall. I did I complete rewatch of the series a few months ago and see no glaring continuity errors within the book. It’s an excellent expansion on the Icarus mission to Z’ha’dum.
We get to see a different side to Mr Morden when he was just an Earth Force agent, and how he became a Shadow puppet. Initially I thought there was a scene where he was being interviewed by Anna and was conversing with Shadows over her shoulder, but I think that was meant to be more him reflecting on the death of his wife and daughter.
The other oddity is it’s book 7. I’ve always assumed the numbered books were additional stories sequenced within the TV series, but this all happens before the pilot episode. It’s all backstory. Great back story, but weird to be numbered 7.
All in all and excellent addition to the B5 canon I’d recommend to fans.
January 9, 2026
A strong effort. This was the last canon B5 novel I hadn’t read. It tells of Anna Sheridan’s travels to Z’ha’dum along with Morden and her capture by the Shadows, with a side story of John’s trials settling in with the crew of the Agamemnon.
I gave this three stars initially but upgraded to four. The Anna portions (which I believe are the only canon portions) were top notch, going from her investigation of Shadow technology, to the journey, to her friendship and interactions with Morden, to his surrender to the Shadows in an attempt to deal with the grief over the death of his wife and child, to Anna’s attempt to fight and hold onto her humanity as it is stripped away from her. Gripping stuff.
The John stuff didn’t do anything for me. His crew is a bunch of assholes who all served with his predecessor, an asshole at the Line. He breaks through to one guy and then another and eventually pulls them onto the side of the light, and the bad guy is the one-you-least-suspect who is mustache-twirly and is literally committing war crimes while telling people he will be made captain next, not realizing the mic is on, but saying this outloud to people in the room who will presumably out him moments later. Plus a side plot of Delenn threatening the Earth Alliance with another war.
I’m sticking with Anna. 😆
I gave this three stars initially but upgraded to four. The Anna portions (which I believe are the only canon portions) were top notch, going from her investigation of Shadow technology, to the journey, to her friendship and interactions with Morden, to his surrender to the Shadows in an attempt to deal with the grief over the death of his wife and child, to Anna’s attempt to fight and hold onto her humanity as it is stripped away from her. Gripping stuff.
The John stuff didn’t do anything for me. His crew is a bunch of assholes who all served with his predecessor, an asshole at the Line. He breaks through to one guy and then another and eventually pulls them onto the side of the light, and the bad guy is the one-you-least-suspect who is mustache-twirly and is literally committing war crimes while telling people he will be made captain next, not realizing the mic is on, but saying this outloud to people in the room who will presumably out him moments later. Plus a side plot of Delenn threatening the Earth Alliance with another war.
I’m sticking with Anna. 😆
October 8, 2018
Having recently finished watching the entire TV series of Babylon 5 and most of the movies, i wanted to read a few of the books which others said helped to flesh out the story arcs a bit. This is book 7 of the 9 stand alone books written about Babylon 5. There are also 3 trilogies of stories. My research showed that book 7 and book 9 along with the 3 trilogies are considered to be canon to the series, as well as being well written and helping to fill out story pieces.
This book was available at the library and so is the first of the Babylon 5 books i've read. I wasn't disappointed. The book focuses mainly on the story of the Icarus which journeyed to Z'ha'dum with John Sheridan's wife Anna aboard before the dedication of Babylon 5. It also intertwines pieces of story about John Sheridan and Jeff Sinclair and their activities during this same time period. I think i most enjoyed seeing John Sheridan and Jeff Sinclair prior to their arcs in the TV series. It felt good, and helped make a bit more meaningful the change in leadership which occurred on Babylon 5.
If you enjoyed the TV series, you'll enjoy this book.
This book was available at the library and so is the first of the Babylon 5 books i've read. I wasn't disappointed. The book focuses mainly on the story of the Icarus which journeyed to Z'ha'dum with John Sheridan's wife Anna aboard before the dedication of Babylon 5. It also intertwines pieces of story about John Sheridan and Jeff Sinclair and their activities during this same time period. I think i most enjoyed seeing John Sheridan and Jeff Sinclair prior to their arcs in the TV series. It felt good, and helped make a bit more meaningful the change in leadership which occurred on Babylon 5.
If you enjoyed the TV series, you'll enjoy this book.
May 10, 2018
Calluses!!!! The author has a weird obsession with calluses in this book. I lost tracl of how many times character's hands were described.
A large part of the book didn't feel very 'Babylon 5', the techno babble in the Anna Sheridan parts felt more like Star Trek.
The brief segments on Babylon 5 featuring Commander Sinclair were a nice surprise, a shame that these weren't expanded on.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this.
A large part of the book didn't feel very 'Babylon 5', the techno babble in the Anna Sheridan parts felt more like Star Trek.
The brief segments on Babylon 5 featuring Commander Sinclair were a nice surprise, a shame that these weren't expanded on.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this.
December 30, 2021
I thought it was more of 3/5 but by the end I was enjoying it so much that I changed my mind.
It's quite fine with writting style being rather transparent most of the time and becoming jarringly apparent when two main characters thought about how much they are in love with each other. That certainly didn't work for me.
It's quite fine with writting style being rather transparent most of the time and becoming jarringly apparent when two main characters thought about how much they are in love with each other. That certainly didn't work for me.
May 30, 2024
An excellent prequel that draws together many important plot elements that appear later in the show. This is brilliantly creepy at times and if it was a film, I'd totally watch it over In the Beginning any day. Bonus points for including Jeffrey Sinclair. Extremely well written and making me care so much about Anna when I didn't give her much thought before... it's easy to see why this book is considered (mostly) canon by the show's creator.
May 4, 2017
Well may be I should have given it a 5, but I was so disappointed about the end I marked it down one. I was so sad, I really enjoyed it until then :-(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2019
One of the better b5 books
May 14, 2021
You get the author idea of what happened to Anna Sheridan. A different story from what happened on the show.
March 30, 2021
The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos is a tie-in novel for the Babylon 5 TV show. It tells the background to three stories that were not covered in the show. What happened to Anna Sheridan at Z'Ha'dum, John Sheridan taking command as the captain of the Agamemnon, and the events surrounding the dedication of Babylon 5. The novel brings these three stories together. Can Anna escape Z’Ha’dum, can John defeat a plot to destroy Babylon 5, and will Commander Sinclair keep order on Babylon 5?
Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos tells a great origin story for John and Anna Sheridan. The ending was perfect and sad but linked up seamlessly with the TV show. The reader knows something that was not known before reading the book, and that was the purpose to add this novel to the lore of the show.
It surprised me when Kosh appears in Chapter 11 and calls Delenn. The first ten chapters were all in either Anna or John’s POV. The author added Sinclair and Garibaldi in Chapter 12. There are only 18 Chapters in the novel, so these characters are late additions to the story. Garibaldi’s part would have hardly been a “C” story in the TV show.
I would have liked to see the Babylon 5 crew through John Sheridan’s eyes. Put him inside Babylon 5, rather than having him watch the dedication. I think that would have been more interesting than seeing Garibaldi put down a lessor plot from inside the station. Keep the novel as a novel of Anna and John before we meet them on the TV show.
Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos tells a great origin story for John and Anna Sheridan. The ending was perfect and sad but linked up seamlessly with the TV show. The reader knows something that was not known before reading the book, and that was the purpose to add this novel to the lore of the show.
It surprised me when Kosh appears in Chapter 11 and calls Delenn. The first ten chapters were all in either Anna or John’s POV. The author added Sinclair and Garibaldi in Chapter 12. There are only 18 Chapters in the novel, so these characters are late additions to the story. Garibaldi’s part would have hardly been a “C” story in the TV show.
I would have liked to see the Babylon 5 crew through John Sheridan’s eyes. Put him inside Babylon 5, rather than having him watch the dedication. I think that would have been more interesting than seeing Garibaldi put down a lessor plot from inside the station. Keep the novel as a novel of Anna and John before we meet them on the TV show.
February 26, 2017
excellent book explaining what happened in better episodes
July 18, 2024
Now we hear the store of Sheridan's Anna. It should have been a short story. [sigh] I definitely liked the intertwine of Anna & Mr. Morden, as well as the fates of the remainder of the crew. However, it does drag on and on. The incidents surrounding the ill-fated trip and the outcomes does not command 300+ pages. There are places where it is slightly out of step with B5 timing but not enough to turn me off the story itself. At the end I didn't feel terribly satisfied but I thought, "Okay, decent enough bridge and a good explanation of the most curious person in the B5 universe - Mr. Morden.
EDIT: I have to raise this to an excellent read. I don't know why my first read was less than satisfying. There is so much nuance, especially the story of Mr. Morden. And it answers 2 important B5 questions: "Who was he?" "What did he want?" Further, we also see why Sheriden was so devoted to the Agamemnon & that crew to him. And, finally, how & why Anna became the Anna we meet in season 4.
EDIT: I have to raise this to an excellent read. I don't know why my first read was less than satisfying. There is so much nuance, especially the story of Mr. Morden. And it answers 2 important B5 questions: "Who was he?" "What did he want?" Further, we also see why Sheriden was so devoted to the Agamemnon & that crew to him. And, finally, how & why Anna became the Anna we meet in season 4.
July 6, 2015
For a tie-in novel, The Shadow Within is pretty good. Filling in the blanks in a story already told by characters in a television show can be challenging. It's easy to just phone it in, relying on the reader being a fan of the series and being able to inject the character with life based on earlier experience. Cavelos doesn't do that. She delivers a story that touches on all the parts already mentioned by the characters, and manage to expand upon it in a way that makes for an interesting read.
Especially getting to know Morden before he became the manipulative asshole that he is in the TV-series kept me reading this book. That, and Sheridan's attempts to get the crew of his new command to work is what makes this book stand out.
Recommended for any fan of Babylon 5 who wishes there were more stories. And don't we all? Really?
Especially getting to know Morden before he became the manipulative asshole that he is in the TV-series kept me reading this book. That, and Sheridan's attempts to get the crew of his new command to work is what makes this book stand out.
Recommended for any fan of Babylon 5 who wishes there were more stories. And don't we all? Really?
June 25, 2014
More SciFi fun!!! ;-) The novel does a nice job filling in the details of John Sheridan's former wife, the archeologist Anna Sheridan, and her tragic encounters with Shadow technology, on Earth and with the Icarus team on the remote planet "Alpha Omega 3" (better known to us as the Shadow homeworld, "Z'ha'dum"). Cavelos manages a somewhat sympathetic portrayal of Anna's colleague Morden, as another victim of the menacing Shadows. Less interesting is the concurrent story of Sheridan himself as captain of the space destroyer, Agamemnon. Cavelos handles the military culture aspects well, but the terrain is far more familiar SF space fare. Hard to compete with the allure and mystery of the enigmatic Shadows.
July 10, 2012
A solid B5 novel that's full of interesting background information about Anna Sheridan and her tragic journey on the Icarus, with some attention on the character of Morden. Both are characters of intrigue who didn’t get enough screen time in the series.
The plot is mostly a recount of what has been established before and in all honestly the novel could have used a few more original ideas and surprises. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read more about Anna Sheridan, Morden and their connection to the planet Za'ha'dum and the shadows.
A good read that offers essential information regarding the TV series. And that pretty much compensates for a few weak points in the storytelling, which aren't that incriminating anyway.
The plot is mostly a recount of what has been established before and in all honestly the novel could have used a few more original ideas and surprises. Nonetheless, it was interesting to read more about Anna Sheridan, Morden and their connection to the planet Za'ha'dum and the shadows.
A good read that offers essential information regarding the TV series. And that pretty much compensates for a few weak points in the storytelling, which aren't that incriminating anyway.
August 18, 2013
This was an interesting novel but didn't go far enough. The parts on the Agamemnon worked well but the Anna Sheridan parts were less interesting. I of course knew where the story would end and expected it to finish with Anna being sent to Babylon 5. This would also have included Morden being prepared for his 'Signs and Portents' mission. It could have even shown how he got the 'eye' back for Londo.
One strange omission was that there was no mention of Justin. I know JMS says that he came to Za'ha'dum later than the Icarus but the story stops before his arrival.
In conclusion the novel fails because it doesn't say much more than the series. It shows the crew landing on Za'ha'dum and some of what happened but doesn't go into Anna and Morden formally working for the Shadows.
One strange omission was that there was no mention of Justin. I know JMS says that he came to Za'ha'dum later than the Icarus but the story stops before his arrival.
In conclusion the novel fails because it doesn't say much more than the series. It shows the crew landing on Za'ha'dum and some of what happened but doesn't go into Anna and Morden formally working for the Shadows.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2016
NOTE: For fans of the television series Babylon 5, this is possibly 4 star novel. It isn't as much of a must-read as To Dream in the City of Sorrows. Not that it is written by a lesser author. I don't think that at all. But the story itself isn't quite as grand, or more accurately, not as pivitol. In my opinion, the itch that
The Shadow Within
scratches isn't as intense as that which answers the question of what happened to Jeffrey Sinclair after he was transferred to Minbar? And, of course, that is answered in To Dream in the City of Sorrows.
Finally, I honestly don't feel there would be any appeal for readers that do not follow the television show.
Finally, I honestly don't feel there would be any appeal for readers that do not follow the television show.
June 24, 2009
This is called a prequel to Cavelos' Technomage trilogy, though I cannot see much of a link. Nevertheless, it is a fine story that fills in a bit of detail on Anna Sheridan and her disastrous final Archaeological dig. We also find out something about Morden and how he came to be a shadow servant.
January 22, 2011
A B5 book that fills one of the more interesting continuity holes...and manages to bring us to its tragic yet inevitable end with considerable style & sadness. Anna Sheridan's thoughts, as she becomes the core of a Shadow ship, are particularly terrifying...
July 8, 2012
I loved this book..... It filled in alot of blanks about what happened to Anna and the 'Icarus' on Z'ha'dum. The story was well written making it possible to visualise what I was reading. One of the better books of this series I have read so far.
April 20, 2011
Wonderfully written. Jeanne does an excellent job connecting all the threads involving Anna Sheridan, Mr. Morden, and Z'ha'dum. It shows that she really did her homework
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